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Epic Games Says Apex Legends Hasn’t Even Made A Dent In Fortnite

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and though Fortnite has already taken a few gameplay elements from the so-hot-right-now Apex Legends (see: the ping system), Respawn Entertainment’s battle royale title is seriously beginning to stake its claim for the pixelated throne. And fast.

Last month we told you that Apex Legends‘ growth rate is currently four times faster than that of Fortnite. To break it down, it only took 8 hours for the game to bring in a staggering 1 million players, and those numbers have been on the rise ever since, with Apex hitting 50 million strong by four weeks. To put that insane growth into perspective, it took Fortnite a full 16 weeks to reach 45 million, which only goes to show just how competitive this particular genre is.

But if you ask Epic Games, there’s absolutely nothing to worry about. CEO Tim Sweeney spoke to GamesBeat recently and told them that even despite the staggering success of Apex Legends, Fortnite is still growing at a steady rate.

“We’re very close to hitting 250 million Fortnite players,” said Sweeney. “Since Apex Legends came out, we’ve gained an Apex Legends worth of Fortnite players, which is amazing.”

“We hit a Fortnite non-event peak twice after Apex was out. We haven’t seen any visible cut into Fortnite. It’s a funny thing. The only game you can see where its peaks cut into Fortnite playtime is FIFA. It’s another game for everybody, wildly popular around the world.”

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Further in the interview, the Epic Games head honcho noted that Apex has actually helped re-energize gamers and he’s pleased to see it offering its own spin on the genre.

“What Apex Legends has done is re-energized a lot of shooter players, people who come in and out of shooters depending on what’s popular,” said Sweeney. “It’s awesome to see other games picking up on battle royale, adding their unique spin to it and advancing the state of the industry.”

While Sweeney doesn’t seem too worried about the competition at the moment, no one can deny that Apex Legends is beginning cement its place at the forefront of the online scene, and even though Fortnite has entered the gaming pantheon as one of the biggest titles of our generation, who knows if it’ll be able to hold that place for much longer, particularly with popular shooters like Apex Legendsnibbling away at its massive player base.